BrightNest is currently under private beta, with plans to open its service to the public during the holidays.

Denver-based BrightNest is the first Colorado company accepted into the 500 Startups accelerator program in Silicon Valley.

It is a member of the Fall 2011 class that runs through January. The company describes itself as the “Mint.com for home maintenance.”

Here’s how it works: after homeowners enter their address, BrightNest sends them customized maintenance reminders, weekly tips and step-by-step instructions. The company bases initial tips on location and other factors, and further customizes subsequent tips based on additional information passed on by the homeowner, such as whether they have children.

“We provide the what, when and how, and even the why, of home maintenance in one easy-to-navigate space,” co-founder and president Justin Anthony said in an interview today. “After users sign up, we can immediately create a custom owners manual for their home.”

An example of a tip would be to blow out your sprinklers, a reminder that would have been sent out a couple of weeks ago.

Anthony formed BrightNest with veteran home builder Allen Shulman in early 2011. David Cohen, a co-founder of Boulder’s TechStars program, is an early investor.

The service will be free to the homeowners, though BrightNest plans to offer premium, fee-based options.

“Our revenue model, to start with, is going to be focused on the additional features we add down the road, such as the home folio, which is basically your online user manual in the cloud, enabling you to store all types of information about your house, like manuals, warranties and those types of things,” said Anthony, 37.

BrightNest has attracted more than 1,000 users under private beta and plans to open the service to the public during the upcoming holidays.

BrightNest has six employees and is based in Denver’s River North Art District, where Anthony owns a bar called the matchbox.

Tamara Chuang covers personal technology and local tech news for The Denver Post. She previously spent 10 years doing the same thing for The Orange County Register before taking a hiatus to move here and become a SAHM to a precocious toddler.